A mobile object, such as an autonomous mobile robot, that can autonomously move within a limited area inside or outside a building on the basis of information about its environment is known. Such a mobile object creates a movement path from its current position to a specific target position on an environment map of a movement area stored in advance to allow autonomous movement along the path. Therefore, the autonomous mobile object is typically provided with a function of recognizing its position in the movement area.
The autonomous mobile object performs a specific operation while traveling, which is one of its objectives. For example, a cleaning robot travels throughout an area to be cleaned while collecting dust.
The autonomous mobile object that travels while performing an operation is required to adequately complete the operation. In a case where the operation is not adequately performed, the autonomous mobile object needs to compensate for the inadequate operation. That is, the autonomous mobile object needs to evaluate whether the result of operation is adequate or not and to perform a certain feedback operation if the operation is inadequate. For example, a cleaning robot has an evaluation criterion that is based on whether the cleaning robot has successfully cleaned everywhere in a cleaning area.
As a technique for addressing the issue of the autonomous mobile object being required to perform a feedback operation on the basis of the result of operation, a device control apparatus and a self-propelled electronic device disclosed in PTL 1, for example, are known. With the device control apparatus and self-propelled electronic device disclosed in PTL 1, the travel log of the self-propelled electronic device is recorded and, in the next travel, the self-propelled electronic device preferentially travels through an area through which the self-propelled electronic device has less frequently traveled in the last travel to thereby travel throughout the entire area and make the operation appropriate.
Further, an autonomous traveling apparatus that can travel and reach a target position while autonomously avoiding obstacles is known (PTL 2).